Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Seoul, South Korea – An American scholar’s award winning book on anti-gay hate crimes will hit the shelves throughout South Korea on Friday, October 18, the first such book of its kind in the Korean language. Alma Books is publishing Who Trampled The Rainbow Flag?: Remembering the Death of Victims of Hate Crime Against the Sexual Minority, the Korean translation of Dr. Stephen Sprinkle’s groundbreaking anthology of hate crimes murder victim stories, Unfinished Lives: Remembering LGBTQ Hate Crimes Murder Victims (Resource Publications, 2011).

Who Trampled the Rainbow Flag? will boost the creation of a whole new discourse on crimes against the sexual minority, heretofore a taboo subject in the Republic of Korea. At the urging of Brite Divinity School’s Dr. Namsoon Kang, Professor of World Christianity and Religions, Munhakdongne accepted the challenge to publish a book many other Korean publishers thought was interesting enough, but “too risky.” A translator was secured in Berkeley, California to take on the project, after negotiations between the American and Korean publishers.

Homosexuality is still considered to be a western “disease” by the majority of South Koreans, whose values are dually shaped by Confucian ideals of patriarchy and family, and by Christian heterosexism which exhibits strongly conservative aspects of the missionary efforts that established the churches on the Korean Peninsula over a hundred years ago. In the main, homosexuality is not spoken of in Korea, though a significant shift towards the beginnings of tolerance has taken place there in recent years. According to the June 2013 Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Survey on homosexuality showed that South Korea, while still disapproving of sexual minorities, has shown the largest shift of public opinion towards tolerance of any nation in the world. Korean attitudes moved from barely 18% who believed in 2007 that homosexuality should be accepted, to 39% in 2013–a shift of 21 per cent in six years.

Sprinkle’s book, which won the 2012 Silver Medal for Gay/Lesbian Non-Fiction at the IPPY Awards in New York City, was chosen for Korean publication because of the way it puts a human face on the oppression of LGBTQ people. The endorsement by famed gay Korean film director, writer, and producer, Kim Jho Kwang-soo (Peter Kim), gave the book a major boost. Kim is one of the few openly gay celebrities in South Korea, and, along with his spouse, Kim Seung-hwan (David Kim), are the prime movers in the increasingly popular Seoul LGBT Film Festival. Author Stephen Sprinkle is currently in Korea networking, speaking in churches and book gatherings in support of the launch of Who Trampled the Rainbow Flag?on Thursday, October 17 at Libro Bookstore at Hong Ik University in Seoul, where Kim Jho Kwang-soo will appear for a joint book signing.

The odds facing LGBTQ people in South Korea are daunting, but books like Dr. Sprinkle’s human take on how hatred and religiously motivated bigotry destroy lives and motivate self-loathing, murder, and suicide in so many members of the sexual minority bear the potential to start a new dialogue on tolerance there. As Dr. Sprinkle said, “We are not naîve about the future for gays and lesbians, bisexual and transgender Koreans. But the signs of a thaw in opinions is unmistakable everywhere I go in Korea. Perhaps Who Trampled the Rainbow Flag? can speed the liberation of queer folk here–as a matter of fact,” Sprinkle went on to say, “that very process has already begun.”

About

If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.

The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBTQ hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation. LGBTQ people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling decimation of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Bisexuals, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.

The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBTQ persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.

Each murder serves the LGBTQ population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBTQ people is a cruel dream. Every time we remember one of these victims, however, the intentions of their killers are frustrated. To remember these women and men is to begin the process of changing the culture that killed them.

Our Project Director

Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle (Keith Tew photo).

Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBTQ person to be tenured there. Read More…

Recent Social Justice Advocacy Activity By Dr. Sprinkle

Summer 2009 – Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009. Read More…

Schedule a Presentation

Dr. Sprinkle will gladly present his acclaimed presentation to your organization. To arrange an Unfinished Lives presentation for your organization or group, please contact us.Dr. Sprinkle has given his Unfinished Lives presentation to these and other community groups and organizations. Read More…